Political | Process

The Education Department estimated that 560,000 student borrowers would be affected by the move involving the defunct, for-profit education company.

Borrowers who attended Corinthian schools like Everest, Heald and WyoTech, located throughout the country and online, have been pressing the federal government for relief for years, especially following the company’s declaration of bankruptcy in 2015.

Around 100,000 former Corinthian students have successfully applied for relief under Education Department rules for defrauded borrowers and students who attend schools that close while they are attending them or shortly afterward.

Now, the remaining 560,000 borrowers will be eligible for automatic discharges of their remaining Corinthian federal student-loan debt. All remaining federal loans held by anyone who attended a Corinthian school between its founding in 1995 and its 2015 closure are eligible.

The move is by far the largest single discharge of student debt ever. Before Wednesday, the Biden administration’s actions had resulted in around $19 billion in loan forgiveness for more than 750,000 borrowers since President Biden, a Democrat, took office, including more than $2 billion through the borrower defense to repayment program, according to Education Department data.

Wednesday’s action will rely on borrower defense authorities. Vice President Kamala Harris, who in 2016 as the state attorney general in California obtained a $1.1 billion judgment against Corinthian, formally announced the plan at the Education Department on Thursday afternoon.

“Corinthian purposely and fraudulently went after those most in need,” Ms. Harris said. “They targeted people who they assumed wouldn’t fight back.”

The move follows calls from senior Democrats including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown of Ohio, among others, for the department to move more quickly to forgive the longstanding debts.